Navigate:

Why President Obama is picking fights with Congress

It would be a mistake to attribute all of Obama’s actions to dispassionate tactics. | AP Photo

“When you add it up, the president’s intentions in the next two years are not to govern well or in a bipartisan way but to maneuver,” said Ari Fleischer, George W. Bush’s press secretary and a frequent Obama critic. “I think his highest ambition is to defeat Republicans in the midterm election so he can finish his presidency in a flourish.”

Text Size

-

+

reset

POLITICO LIVE 1/9/13

But five current and former White House veterans said they see a big change in tone from Obama and a desire to project the toughest possible image to his adversaries.

One of the reasons the president is so determined to stick with Hagel despite criticism of his views on Israel and Iran, according to Obama insiders: It would have looked weak to bail on a second nominee after Susan Rice, Obama’s first choice for secretary of state, withdrew last month under pressure from Republicans.

It isn’t all about saving face or destabilizing the opposition. Obama aides say the president wants to govern in a bipartisan way but is blocked by a House GOP majority that is unwilling and incapable of functioning in a responsible manner.

The best way to get what he wants, his staff says, is to create pressure from the outside through campaign-style events like the ones he staged in December during the fiscal cliff negotiations.

But there are limits to how far to push his advantage. The Hagel nomination and upcoming debt negotiations require blunt force in the eyes of many Democrats. Immigration reform and gun control are very different issues, requiring a more subtle application of pressure and coordination.

Obama isn’t the only one toughening up for the new year. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) doesn’t want to negotiate with the president one-on-one anymore, he told his members after the humbling fiscal cliff fight.

For the moment, that seems to suit Obama just fine.

“This is not personal, and this is about putting in place the policies that are best for the country. That’s how the president looks at it,” Obama press secretary Jay Carney said Monday, side-stepping several opportunities to chide Boehner during the White House briefing.

“There’s no question that President Obama, in the course of his four years in office, has learned a great deal about how to work with Congress and how to enlist public support on behalf of policies,” Carney added.

Whether all this is smart politics or blind partisanship is very much in the eye of the Obama beholder.

In the view of the president’s progressive allies, he has already been too nice and too accommodating to the opposition. Many in the party, including Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), believe Obama could have driven a harder bargain during the fiscal cliff talks, extracting a longer-term deal on the sequester or lowering the threshold for tax hikes from $400,000 to $250,000.

“Republican hostage-taking and avoiding our real crises is setting the stage for more fiscal blackmail at the expense of the middle class,” tweeted AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka hours after the New Year’s Eve deal was announced.

On the other end of the spectrum are Republicans led by Sen. Lindsey Graham, the media-savvy South Carolinian who has led the charge against Hagel — an iconoclast who opposed the Iraq War, after first backing it, and now supports Obama’s plans to slash military spending as part of his deficit-reduction efforts.

So what happened to Susan Rice then? Politico really just enjoys its own sensationalism.

You think he would rather have the debt cieling? While trying all through the past four years to repair the economy so as to enhance his legacy. You think he enjoyed the 2011 debt cieling fight that saw our credit rating downgraded? I believe these are fights of necessity. He kind of has no choice in this.

And neither do the repubs given their base (yes those abject morons will soon be on the boards soon too espousing the most ridiculous nonsense). That's why they made fools of themselves over the fiscal cliff. Rejecting a more favorable tax deal from their point of view for a worse one rather than lose in the primaries. They knew that their base would never get it or understand reality. Just like they didn't all the way down to November. Just like they have this cult-like anger and distorted view of everything to do with Obama.

This is misleading at best. Obama doesn't have it in him to really fight. It is not his nature and was not part of his upbringing. Had he learned a lesson it would have been on the day McConnell said that job #1 was to make Obama a one term president and that the answer from the GOP to anything he does is "NO!". He already caved on his new taxes so that a person making a million is now really a person making $400,000. He has already proposed changes in Social Security, one of two welfare programs that are not in debt like the Congress has made the rest of the country. They already precluded his choice for Sec. of State even before he formally proposed her. The list just continues to grow.

“When you add it up, the president’s intentions in the next two years are not to govern well or in a bipartisan way but to maneuver,” said Ari Fleischer, George W. Bush’s press secretary and a frequent Obama critic. “I think his highest ambition is to defeat Republicans in the midterm election so he can finish his presidency in a flourish.” (Politico)

Ari Fleischer, being a Republican, doesn't see that the either/or he presents is really all of the above. President Obama's intention and ambition is to govern well. To him that means bipartisan agreements (especially since nothing but bipartisan agreements on legislation will make it into law). Our president would also like to defeat House Republicans and defeat them for many reasons. One, they don't govern well and therefore crimps his own ability to govern well. Dysfunctional Republican governance in the House is a national embarrassment and constant fodder for the butt of jokes on late night TV. Two, Republicans would not try to take our economy hostage and threaten to shoot the hostage if they were placing our country's best interests above their political gamesmanship; naturally, our president, like most voters, objects to their misplaced priorities and their threats to do untold damage to our economy. Such people should be thrown out of office. Three, governing well means growing jobs and cutting spending in a responsible, balanced way. The majority of Republicans join the majority of independents and Democrats in favoring raking back our billions in tax dollars going to our five big oil companies making collectively over $125 billion a year. A similar across-the-board majority wants tax reform that insures behemoth companies like Wells Fargo and IBM are not allowed to get away with paying no federal taxes at all. We simply can't afford to give such rich companies special tax exemptions John and Jennifer Q. Public don't get. So good governance and doing the will of the people would make Republicans agree with our presidents proposals and pass legislation in a bipartisan and even friendly way (because we're on the same side). It is only because Republicans stand on the wrong side of the issues, against the will of the majority of the voters that Republicans see President Obama's attitude and proposals as "in your face" combative (as Graham puts it). It sounds like Republican are suffering psychological projection to me.

Hey Obama, forget about the debt ceiling. Cut your salaries, yours and the salaries of the politicians; cut the salaries of federal workers/contractors. The reason you want to increase the debt ceiling is to increase your salaries and other things. No more debt ceiling. Do not give money to countries and illegal aliens

#5 Roameo..It is only because Republicans stand on the wrong side of the issues, against the will of the majority of the voters that Republicans see President Obama's attitude and proposals as "in your face" combative (as Graham puts it). It sounds like Republican are suffering psychological projection to me...................................... Graham is Pyscho.logical and the GOP is Suffering, Projection is their name of the game, but as you say, not all. Thats the Prob, the big money is being dumped on the dumbest of the Dumb in the party and they are holding the whole country back...

Obama is picking a fight because apparently there are a few extreme right wingnut heads left to explode. All is going according to plan. Youbetcha!

“There’s no question that President Obama, in the course of his four years in office, has learned a great deal about how to work with Congress and how to enlist public support on behalf of policies,” Carney added.

Do not increase the debt ceiling. We owe too much. We must not increase the debt ceiling. Obama, cut your salaries and benefits, cut the salary of politicians and their benefits; cut the salaries and benefits of federal workers/contractors; do not give money to countries and illegal aliens. Why a senator or representative who serves only one/two/three terms has to get pension for life? That is why the debt ceiling is increased each year and you politicians have to increase our taxes. Those senators/representatives must not get pensions for life. So to stop it, you do what I just told you to do and you will not have to increase our debt ceiling/taxes.

Btw liberal morons. You realize that Obama's tantrums and your support of childish behavior will prevent you from criticizing President 45? That is if Obama doesn't finish America with his reckless policies once and for all. $8.4 trillion in debt and counting. $18 trillion in spending in 5 years. Massive unemployment. flat economy. Crisis after crisis under his watch. This fool is a wreck. Not even Bush was this bad.

So choosing a person who says he puts America first is "picking a fight." This means Obama is picking a fight with those who put Israel's interests above America's interests. It's about time. As Paul Findley, a member of Congress from Illinois for 22 years, wrote in his book They Dare To Speak Out, "Capitol Hill is truly Israeli-occupied territory."

Obama has done nothing but pick fights from day one. All that "post partisan" bs was just noise to help him get elected. He's a radical ideologue and a partisan punk. The republicans better wake up and realize that they are in a fight for our nation's survival. Words mean nothing to the Kenyan. They are just tools to an end. A left wing socialist end. The GOP have to start stopping and REVERSING the First Bolshevik and they had better do it immediately.

First of all, the congress is the one who has spent all that money. Do you know that we have spent $4 billion every year since 2001 to pay for training and arming the Afghan army? We are still building a dam in Afghanistan that was supposed to be completed in 2005. We help pay for the Afghan's health care. We are building roads and infrastructure. What are these neocons thinking?

Congress is also the one who needs to cut their own salaries. The president can not do that. It has to originate in the house of representatives. Oh wait.... Why is it that those who hate the gov't the most try desperately to become a leech on said gov't.

No matter what he does the dim wits in the republican party object. He tried to negotiate and they would not so good for you Obama do what you want to do for a change. The modern day republican party is a party of clowns, misfits and morons. They want to fight give them a fight at every turn the next four years.

Speaking of cutting salaries. Obama should stop spending so much in vacation trips. $20 million of our money so that he can enjoy Hawaii should outrage anyone in the middle class. But Oby had no concept of saving. Money is no object to this reckless spender.